Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-04-02

cultured placidity of c~ountenance you
are on fire with agitations of soul. Oh,
this solitary anxiety Of your whole life
time! You have sold goods TO or
bought them from Christian people for
ten years, and they have never whis-
pered one word Of spiritual counsel.
You have passed up and down the
aisles of churches with men who knew
that you had no hope of heaven, and
talked about the weather, and about
your physical health, and about every
thing but that concerning which you
most wanted to hear them speak,
namely, your everlasting spirit. Times
without number 20 have felt in your
heart, if you have not uttered it with
your lips: "No man cares for my
soul"
There have been times when you
were especially pliable OF the
GREAT SUBJECT OF RELIGION.
1t was SO, for instance, after you had
lost your property. You had a great
many letters blowing you up for being
unfortunate. You showed that there
had been Il confederation Of circum-
stances and that your insolvency was
no fault of yours. Your creditors
talked to YOU as though they would
have n hundred cents on a dollar or
your life. Protest after protest
tumbled in on your desk. Men who
used to take your hand in both of theirs
and shake it violently, now pass YOU
on the street with an almost impercept-
ible nod. After six or eight hours of
scalding business anxiety you 90 home
and YOU shut the door, and YOU throw
yourself on the sofa, and you feel
ira
STATE OF DIsPAIR.
You wish that meo would come
in and break up the gloom. Every
thing seems to be against you the
bank against you; your creditors
against you; your friends suddenly be
come critical, against you; all
the past against you; all the
future against you. You make re-
proachful cutlery: mo man cares for
my soul"
There was another occasion when all
the doors of your heart swung open
for sacred influences. A bright light
went out in your household. Within
three or four years there were COM
pressed sickness, death, o~bseQuies.
You were SO lonely that a hundred
people coming into the house did not
break up the solitariness. You were
almost killed with the domestic calam-
ity. A few formal ~perfunctory words
of consolation were uttered on the
stairs before you went to the grave;
but you wonted someone to come and
talk over the whole matter. and recite
the alleviations, and decipher the les
sons of the
DARK BEREAVEMENT.
No n came. Many n time rou
could not sleep until 2 or 3 o'clock in
the morning, and then your sleep was
a troubled dream in which was re-
enacted all the scene of sickness. part
ing End dissolution. Oh, what days
and nights they were! No man seemed
to care for your soul.
There was another occasion when
your heart was very susceptible. There
was a great awakening. There were
hundreds of people who pressed into
the kingdom Of God; some of them
acquaintance, some business assoc
ciates-yes - perhaps some members
of your W family were baptized by
sprinkling or immersion. Christian
people thought of you and they called
ut your store, but you were out on bus
mess. They stopped at your house;
you had gone around to spend the
evening. They sent a kindly message
to YOU; somehow, by accident, you did
not get it. The life-hoat Of the
GOSPEL
swept through the surf and everybody
seemed TO gel in but you. Everything
seemed to escape you. One touch
of personal sympathy would have
pushed you into the kingdom of God.
When on communion day your friends
went in and your sons and daughters
went into the church, you buried your
face in your handkerchief and sobbed:
Why am | left out? Everybody seems
to get saved but me. No man cares
my SOUL"
Hearken to a revelation l have to
make. 1t is a startling statement. 1t
will surprise you that | must prove it
rs ! 90 on. Instead Of this total indif-
ference all about you, in regard 10 your
soul, i have to tell you that heaven,
and hell are after your immortal
spirit. Earth to cheat it. Hell to de-
stroy it. Heaven to redeem it. AL
you may be a stranger to the
in this house, their faces
would glow and their hearts would
bound if they saw you make one step
leavenward. SO intricate and far
'eaching is this web of sympathy that
could by one word rouse a great
many prayers in your behalf. No one
for your soul! Why, one signal
distress on your part would
thrill this audience with holy excite
nent. If "A boat in AIRY .harbor should
ret in distress, from the mon of war,
and from the s!oops, and from the
steamers, the flying paddles would
PCIL TO THE RESCUE.
And If now. YOU would lift one signal
e li-tra.n al tLaDa raarn.rarr oE 49,.